


Just the Three of Us

by doodles357



Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: Best Friends, Childhood Friends, Friendship, Gen, Good Hair Crew (Andi Mack), just some friendship bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-07
Updated: 2019-05-07
Packaged: 2020-02-27 19:27:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18745573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doodles357/pseuds/doodles357
Summary: Both of Buffy's best friends are hurting from different events in their lives. All she wants to do is make them feel better, but she doesn't know how. So she does her best to try and distract them, as the three friends spend a day together, just like they used to.





	Just the Three of Us

**Author's Note:**

> This is a post 3x13 fic; not really a fix-it, but more of a band-aid. I just adore the friendship between the main three and I really wanted to write something for them.

Buffy didn’t know what to do.

In the span of a morning, she saw both of her best friends plummet into what could only be described as despair, through two completely different set of events. What was supposed to just be a fun day of dressing up in goofy costumes had somehow turned into a day of silences, downcast eyes, and two people looking completely miserable.

And she didn’t know how to help either of them.

Andi had seemed tense when they met up in the morning, and Jonah’s bailing on the costume had only amplified that. But Buffy knew her friend better than that, and she had a suspicion that something else had to have been going on with her besides Jonah’s insensitivity. It was only later in the day, through a hurried text conversation between classes, that Andi told her and Cyrus that the wedding had been cancelled. While they didn’t get much of a chance to talk after that, Buffy knew how devastated Andi must be as a result.

She had watched her friend’s life turn upside down in the past year or so, starting from when Bex told her the truth about her parentage. It had rocked her world and caused a lot of things to change very quickly. Buffy knew what it was like to have an uncertain family life – at least it was like that with her mom getting deployed and being absent from her life for large chunks of time. But at least she knew to expect it. Andi had no warnings, and things kept changing at a rapid pace. The fact that there had already been two botched proposals, in addition to Bowie drifting in and out of their lives, and all the uncertainty surrounding the relationship between her parents, Andi seemed to never know what to expect from her family situation. The wedding seemed to be the promise that things would settle down and finally become stable for her. Finding out that it wasn’t going to happen had to have been shattering news. Buffy was surprised that Andi had even come to school, but maybe Costume Day had been the opportunity for a distraction from everything else.

And then there was Cyrus. Buffy’s heart ached for her friend, who had been let down in a different, yet equally heartbreaking way. She knew him well enough to pick up on the fact that he had been developing a crush on TJ. They hadn’t discussed it like they had with Jonah, but it had become increasingly obvious that his feelings had changed from friendship to something more towards the other boy. And she had even started to wonder if TJ felt a similar way towards Cyrus.

But TJ had bailed. The look of misery on Cyrus’ face when they first met up with him in the morning had been enough to confirm that something bad had happened, and her worst suspicions were realized when she saw him later in the day, in a t-shirt that matched one Kira was wearing. Cyrus had refused to talk about it, which only went to show how upset he was feeling. No matter what the situation, Cyrus always wanted to talk it out and find a solution. Now it seemed like he was withdrawing into himself, putting up a wall against the rest of the world, which he had never done before.

Both of her friends were hurting, and Buffy didn’t know how to fix it. Andi was the one who would come up with some way to cheer the others up, and Cyrus would lend an ear, ready to talk through the problem. Buffy was the strong one though. She was the one who stood between her friends and the bullies, pushing them away to stop the hurt. She wasn’t the best at being comforting or talking about feelings. But now her friends needed comforting, not for her to stick up for them.

She couldn’t fight her way out of these problems. It was hardly like she could go yell at Andi’s parents for letting her down. Her first instinct was to get up in TJ’s face and demand an explanation but considering how he seemed to look almost as miserable as Cyrus throughout the day, she decided that she didn’t want to cause a scene. There seemed to be more going on than she knew, but it wasn’t the right time to deal with it. And she supposed she could give Jonah a good kick in the shins for being an idiot, but that wouldn’t ultimately solve Andi’s problems.

Buffy spent most of the Saturday morning after Costume Day, mulling over what to do. She didn’t know who to turn to for advice either. The number of people that Cyrus was out to was pretty small, and she couldn’t find a way of phrasing his problem without accidentally outing him to someone. And she was pretty sure that there wasn’t anyone who could swoop in with a solution to fix the wedding issue. So, she put on some music and paced her room, which usually helped her think.

However, it ended up being more of a distraction than anything. She couldn’t help but notice her friend’s music activity, which was displayed on the right-hand side of her Spotify account. Cyrus was cycling through several sad, depressing songs that made her even more upset as she thought about him listening to them, alone in his room. Andi wasn’t listening to anything, which was strange in itself. Weekends were prime crafting time for her, and she always had something playing in the background. Both of them were clearly hurting, and she needed to do something.

Finally, she was hit with inspiration. Screenshotting the song Cyrus was listening to, she sent it to Andi with a text.

**_Buffy_ ** _: I’m worried about him._

**_Andi_ ** _: Me too. I talked to him last night, and he seems really down._

**_Buffy_ ** _: Are you guys okay? We should have told you about the change of plans sooner._

**_Andi_ ** _: It’s okay. At least he figured out a way to do it without messing everything up._

**_Buffy_ ** _: Yeah. Guess Marty’s good for something!_

**_Andi_ ** _: Did you talk to Cyrus yet?_

**_Buffy_ ** _: Not today. I was thinking of going over there to check up on him._

**_Andi_ ** _: Good idea. Want me to come? I could use an excuse to get out of the house._

**_Buffy_ ** _: Meet there at noon?_

**_Andi_ ** _: Sounds like a plan._

The two girls ended up meeting up outside of Cyrus’ mom’s house at about the same time. Andi still looked as morose as she had the day before, but she didn’t say anything about her family situation.

“Did you let him know we were coming?” Andi asked as they walked up to the door.

“No,” Buffy said. “Knowing him, he’d say he was fine and make up some excuse for us to not come over. This way, he has no choice.”

Andi nodded in agreement before knocking on the door. Cyrus’ mom answered, looking somewhat surprised to see them.

“I didn’t know you two were coming over today,” she said, letting them in to the house.

“We didn’t know either,” Buffy said, giving the older woman a polite smile. Leslie smiled back, although Buffy could see she looked worried.

“Do you two know what happened?” she asked, lowering her voice slightly. “He’s been upset ever since he got home yesterday, but he wouldn’t tell me what was wrong.”

That wasn’t a good sign. Cyrus was super close with his mom and had a tendency to tell her everything. Even stuff he wasn’t supposed to. The fact that he hadn’t confided in her yet was worrying.

“We know a little bit of what happened,” Buffy said carefully. She wasn’t sure if she could explain it without getting into why Cyrus was so upset. “We didn’t really get a chance to talk to him about it though, because yesterday was crazy busy. That’s why we came over today, so we could check up on him.”

His mother nodded thoughtfully. “All right. He’s in his bedroom. I didn’t want to pry, so I haven’t pushed the issue. But if anyone can get him to talk, it would be you two.”

The girls thanked her before making their way up to Cyrus’ bedroom. The door was closed, so Buffy knocked first, just to be safe. She listened carefully, and when she didn’t hear anything, she pushed the door open.

Cyrus was lying on his stomach on his bed, fully clothed. His headphones were in, which explained why he hadn’t responded to the knock. His head was up, but his face was away from them, so they couldn’t see his expression. Normally, Buffy would have taken a flying leap and jumped on him for fun, but she had the feeling he wasn’t in the mood for goofing around right now.

Instead, she walked over to the bed and nudged it with her foot. Cyrus glanced around, looking surprised to see them there. He sat up and pulled out his earbuds, surreptitiously wiping at his face while the two girls settled themselves onto the bed. Both of them pretended to not notice his red-rimmed eyes.

This was new territory for them; Buffy didn’t know how to approach the situation. Normally Cyrus would want to talk about whatever was troubling him, but it seemed like he was doing everything to avoid doing that. She had decided to let him take the lead in this situation instead of pressing the issue.

“What are you guys doing here?” he asked, straightening up into a seated position next to them. Andi had taken a position up on the foot of the bed, and Cyrus was near his pillow, with Buffy sitting between the pair. She wanted nothing more than to pull them both into huge hugs, but she wasn’t sure if that was the right thing to do.

“We were bored,” Buffy shrugged, trying to sound light-hearted. “Thought we’d come over to hang out.”

“Did you text me?” Cyrus asked in confusion, pulling his phone over to check his notifications.

“Nope,” Buffy shrugged. “Since when do we need to make plans to hang out?”

“We’re not that old yet,” Andi said with a slight smile, the first one Buffy had seen. She giggled in response, recalling an earlier conversation.

“Yeah, we never need an excuse to hang,” Buffy continued.

“Oh,” Cyrus said, and she couldn’t help but notice that he didn’t sound too enthusiastic.

“Do…you want to talk about it?” she asked hesitantly. Maybe he just needed a tiny bit of encouragement.

“Not really,” he said quietly, and she shot a quick glance over at Andi, who looked just as unsure as her about how to deal with it.

“Well, let’s do something else then,” Andi said. “Something distracting.”

“Like what?” Cyrus asked, looking over at her. He knew about the wedding fiasco, and had his own situation not been going on, he probably would have been the one texting Buffy and telling her that they needed to do something to cheer Andi up.

“I…I don’t know,” Andi said. She was starting to look depressed again, and Buffy felt like her plan was falling apart. Both of them were miserable, but spending time together was starting to look like they would be miserable together. Part of her wished that things could be as easy as they used to be, when they were younger. When it was just the three of them, before life had gotten so complicated.

That’s when an idea hit her.

“I’ve got it,” she said, bolting up and shifting her position so she was sitting facing her two friends. They both looked at her – not exactly excited, but at least somewhat interested.

“Would we be able to go over to Cece’s?” she asked Andi.

“Yeah, I don’t see why not,” her friend shrugged.

“Does she know?” Cyrus asked. Andi sighed deeply.

“Yeah, they told her last night. She’s not happy, that’s for sure.”

“But she’d be okay if we hung out at the house, right?” Buffy clarified.

Andi nodded. “It shouldn’t be a problem. Why?”

“You know what I think we need to do?” Buffy said. “We need to hang out.”

“Isn’t that what we’re doing now?” Cyrus asked, sounding confused.

“We should go over to Cece’s, and play like we used to,” Buffy continued. “We can turn our phones on silent, and just spend the day doing stuff we used to do when we were younger. Play games, be goofy, whatever we want. No phones, no texting, no boys or drama or family problems or anything. Just the three of us, having fun like we used to. We can do stuff in Andi Shack, or in your old bedroom or whatever. It’ll be fun!”

The other two considered it, before turning to each other to gauge the other’s reaction. Andi was the first to smile, followed by Cyrus.

“Sounds like a good idea,” she said.

“I’m in,” Cyrus agreed.

Plan set, they headed downstairs. Cyrus paused briefly to tell his mother where they would be going, as well as to let her know he wasn’t going to be answering his phone for a bit. She waved them off cheerfully, although Buffy saw that her worried gaze lingered on Cyrus a little bit longer when he wasn’t looking.

Cece was working on something in the garden when they got there, so they simply waved at her before heading inside. They tromped upstairs to Andi’s old bedroom, the path familiar yet strange at the same time. Buffy couldn’t remember the last time she had actually been inside this particular bedroom, as opposed to Andi’s one at the apartment. She had been to the house a bunch of times since they moved, but they had either stayed downstairs or just hung out in Andi Shack. Andi’s old room had been stripped of a lot of her things and moved to the apartment, so they never had a need to go up there. Even though she knew it almost as well as her own, it felt odd being back. It felt different somehow, even though the room hadn’t actually changed. Maybe it was just her.

The three friends collapsed onto Andi’s old bed, sprawling out. It was quite a bit bigger than Cyrus’, so there was room for all of them.

“It’s weird being back here,” Andi said, echoing Buffy’s own thoughts.

“It is, isn’t it?” Cyrus agreed. “And to think we spent so much time in here.”

“Mostly doing homework,” Buffy snorted.

“Hey, we could have a dance party now and Cece won’t yell at us,” Andi suggested.

“That’s still so weird,” Buffy replied.

“A lot has changed since we hung out here last,” Cyrus commented.

The other two murmured their agreement, and all three fell silent as they reflected on how differently their lives had become in the past year or so. The silence only lasted a few minutes before one of their phones buzzed.

“All right, phones away,” Buffy declared, sitting up on the bed. The other two looked at her, not moving from where they were laying.

“You were serious about that part?” Cyrus asked.

“Yes,” Buffy said firmly. “The three of us are hanging out. No one else. No distractions. Put ‘em on silent and hand them over.”

The other two did so, grumbling slightly. Buffy pulled out her own phone to do the same. She gathered them up and shoved them into a drawer.

“Now, let’s do something,” she said, striking a pose with her hands on her hips.

“This was your idea,” Andi pointed out. “What did you want us to do?”

Buffy thought about it for a second. While it was her idea, she hadn’t thought the plan through very far. Then her mind landed on something Cyrus had said early.

“Dance party,” she grinned. To her disappointment, her friends didn’t look as excited.

“We aren’t using our phones,” Andi pointed out. “How are we supposed to listen to music?”

“Don’t you have a boombox somewhere around here?” Buffy asked, not willing to be deterred. Andi paused, clearly trying to remember. Then she jumped off the bed and ran over to the closet. After some digging, she managed to extract her old boombox, which she plugged into the wall.

“Do you have any old CD’s?” Cyrus asked, getting off the bed to join the girls.

“Um,” Andi said. “I think I got rid of any that I had after I got my phone and put all my music on there. Unless…” she trailed off, before reaching forward and pressing the button on the top of the boombox that opened the CD slot. The three of them peered inside.

A white CD sat inside, with the words Andi’s Mix #17 written on it in Andi’s bubbly handwriting.

“Seventeen?” Cyrus said. “Wow, I didn’t realize you had made so many CD’s!”

“Me either,” Andi said, picking the CD up and examining it. “But I wasn’t allowed to get a phone until fifth grade, so I needed to listen to music somehow.”

The other two murmured their sympathy in remembrance of Cece’s old strictness.

“Do you remember what songs were on this one?” Buffy asked. Andi shrugged in response.

“No idea!” she declared, popping the CD back in. “Only one way to find out, I guess!”

She hit play, and they had to wait for a second as the machine read the disc. Then the song _What Makes You Beautiful_ blasted out, startling all of them. They cracked up as they realized what song was playing.

“Classic,” Cyrus said, shaking his head. Buffy jumped to her feet, grabbing Andi’s hand and pulling her with. She immediately started dancing to the music, bringing her friend along with her. Andi laughed again, getting into the groove of the music. Cyrus soon joined them, and the three found themselves bopping around Andi’s room, shouting the lyrics out as they did.

At one point, Andi dove back into her closet and emerged with some of the props from the party that Bex had thrown that apparently hadn’t made it to the apartment. She draped a feather boa around Buffy’s shoulders and plopped a sparkly fedora on Cyrus’ head. She kept the oversized sunglasses for herself. The three burst out laughing again and continued to dance as the CD switched over to an upbeat Kesha song. Cyrus grabbed Buffy’s hand and spun her around in a circle. They traded off spinning each other, getting lost in the music.

A few songs in, Cece poked her head into the room and shouted over the music that she was going out to run a few errands. She was smiling at their dancing, which was still strange. A year ago, she would have yelled at them to turn the music down and do something quiet. Now she seemed happy to see them goofing around. If nothing else, the whole Mack family situation had allowed Cece to let go of her need for absolute control over everything, which was a nice change.

After a few more dance songs, they collapsed on the ground, exhausted from their energetic dancing. The CD had switched to a slower song anyways, which was perfect timing. The girls attempted to convince Cyrus to show them his dance routine that he had done for his class, but he refused, claiming that he didn’t remember it.

“It was just a few weeks ago; how did you forget it already?” Buffy demanded, rolling over to look at him.

“I came up with it last minute!” he protested. “And to be fair, Amber came up with most of it. I wouldn’t have gotten through it either if she hadn’t been standing behind the teacher, doing the moves for me.”

“Is she your dance mom now?” Andi teased him.

“Yes, she is,” Cyrus said, putting on a serious face, causing the two girls to crack up again.

They ended up laying on the ground through another song or two, catching their breath and enjoying the music that had been such a big part of their childhood. After a few more songs though, Andi sat up and looked enquiringly at Buffy.

“Now what?”

Buffy realized that she apparently had to keep coming up with entertainment for them. But since this was her idea, and she was doing this to distract her friends from their troubles, she rose to the challenge. Thinking quickly, she eventually declared:

“Let’s make cookies!”

Andi and Cyrus exchanged dubious glances.

“We’re not allowed to bake by ourselves, remember?” Cyrus told her. There had been a previous baking incident when they were in fourth grade involving flour that caused all three of their families to strictly ban them from baking without an adult present.

“That was years ago,” Buffy said, with a dismissive wave of her hand. “We’re old enough now to handle making cookies.”

“All right,” Cyrus finally agreed. “Let’s go make some cookies.” Andi grabbed the boombox and brought it down with them.

Down in the kitchen, Andi got out a package of chocolate chips and started reading off the ingredient list while the other two perused the cabinets for everything they needed. After they had everything assembled, they got to work measuring and pouring. This time, they found that it was a lot easier to follow the instructions, and they were extra careful when handling the flour.

After finishing the dough, they all took a turn scooping some out onto their fingers and eating it raw. Then Andi started scooping balls of dough onto the cookie sheet. As she did that, Buffy grabbed a spatula and upped the volume on the boombox. Holding the spatula up like it was a microphone, she started singing along loudly. Cyrus laughed and grabbed whisk, joining in with her. The two of them danced around the kitchen, singing loudly and off-key. Andi just shook her head at her friends’ antics, but she had a smile on her face. Once the tray of cookies was safely in the oven, she joined in.

Halfway through their impromptu concert, Cece came home, laden down with bags of groceries. She cast an eye over the scene, taking in the cooling rack with cookies on it, and the three kids who were dancing around with kitchen utensils.

“So, you decided to try cookies again?” she asked loudly over the music. Buffy leaned over to turn it down and the other two laughed as they tried to catch their breaths.

“No flour troubles this time!” Andi declared. “And we have a timer going so that they don’t accidentally burn.”

Cece just shook her head, but they could tell she wasn’t upset. As she headed out to get more bags, they started unloading the groceries and putting them away.

\-------

When the cookies were finished baking and they had cleaned up their mess, they put a bunch of cookies in a container, grabbed the boombox again, and headed out to Andi Shack. Once safely ensconced inside, they each grabbed a couple of cookies and settled back to enjoy their treat. As they relaxed, Buffy couldn’t help but reflect on how comfortable Andi Shack was. Despite all the changes in their lives, this one little shed had stayed the same. At least, as same as it could be, considering Andi was constantly redecorating it. But she was glad that Andi’s grandparents hadn’t decided to sell the house after all. Even though Andi Shack wasn’t her place, it was a little slice of familiarity from their childhood that she hoped never changed or went away.

Once he finished his cookies, Cyrus started poking around the shack. Even though he was in it a lot, he always liked to look around and see if he could find anything new. As long as he didn’t break anything, Andi let him be. The girls were content to kick back and do nothing. Buffy carefully observed her friends, trying not to be obvious about it. Andi was savoring her last cookie, her eyes closed in bliss. She looked a lot more relaxed than she had since she found out the news about her parents. Buffy knew that Andi Shack was the best place she could be, since it was her own little safe space. She couldn’t see Cyrus’ face in that moment, since he was ferreting through some drawers, but he had thrown himself into the dancing and goofing around pretty enthusiastically earlier. Buffy knew that this afternoon wasn’t going to fix things for either of them that easily, but she was glad that she was able to take their minds off of things, even if for a little while.

Cyrus suddenly let out an exclamation, causing the girls to turn towards him in surprise. He turned around, brandishing a small, silver device.

“Your old camera!” he exclaimed. It was a small, digital camera, which Andi had used before she got her phone.

“I forgot I still had that,” Andi said, sitting up and reaching out a hand for it. Nothing happened when she pressed the ON button though.

“Do you think it still has pictures on it?” Buffy asked.

“Maybe,” Andi replied. “See if the charger is in there,” she instructed Cyrus, who dug through the drawer again, pulling out the small black box a few seconds later.

“We can charge it up and see,” she said, popping the battery out of the bottom.

“When was the last time we took pictures on that?” Buffy asked.

“Third, fourth grade maybe,” Andi mused.

“So, any pictures of us are going to be super cringy?” Cyrus suggested with a wry smile, causing the girls to laugh.

“Oh, I’m sure at least a few of them are cringy,” Buffy agreed.

“Well, this is going to take a bit to charge up,” Andi said. “What should we do until then?”

“I know!” Buffy said, jumping up. She had been mentally going over some things to do to keep them all occupied. She hurried out of Andi Shack without another word, causing the other two to follow her out of curiosity. She led them to the center of the lawn before spinning and facing them again.

“NINJA!” she shouted striking a pose. The other two did so immediately as well. They had played the game quite a few times when they were younger, and they had a system down. Buffy took a swing at Cyrus who was to her right, and he yelped, dodging her swing. Then he turned and did the same towards Andi.

This went on for a while longer, with the three of them laughing and shrieking with excitement. Cyrus was the first one out, as he ended up falling over to avoid Buffy’s hand. The two girls went at it for a bit longer, before Buffy managed to get Andi out. Breathless with laughter, they plopped down onto the grass, where Cyrus had been sitting since he had gotten tagged out.

“I forgot how much fun that was,” Andi grinned.

“I forgot how bad I was at that game,” Cyrus said wryly, causing the girls to laugh. There were only so many outdoor games that they could play with three people, so ninja had become one of their favorites.

As they sat there, Andi had been gathering dandelions and started weaving them together into a flower crown. When she finished the first one, she leaned over and plopped it onto Cyrus’ head. He gave a mock box, making the girls giggle again. She started working on a second one immediately after, which Buffy figured was probably going to come to her. It amazed her how Andi could make something beautiful out of nothing, no matter where they were.

Andi soon finished up two more crowns, gifting one to Buffy and settling the other on her own head. Seeing them matching, Buffy was about to suggest taking a picture, when she remembered they weren’t using their phone. But then she remembered the camera, and she jumped up.

“Let’s go see if the battery’s done charging,” she said, pulling both of her friends to their feet. The three of them headed back inside Andi Shack, settling themselves in a semi-circle as Andi put the battery back in and loaded up the camera.

“Not gonna lie, I’m a little nervous,” Cyrus said. “I remember what my hair looked like back in fourth grade.”

“So do we,” Buffy snarked, earning an elbow in the ribs.

“Here we go!” Andi said as the camera booted up. She hit the button to look at pictures, and the other two crowded in to see.

“It’s…an art project,” Buffy said, recognizing several origami shapes. Andi clicked to the next photo. “It’s…another art project. And another. And another. And yet another. Geeze, Mack.”

“I’m sorry!” Andi protested. “I took pictures, so I could remember the things I made. I’m not allowed to keep everything.”

“Are you sure there are even pictures of us on here?” Cyrus asked.

“Yes!” Andi declared. “Look, here’s one!”

It was a picture of the three of them, selfie style. They had their arms slung around each other’s shoulders and they were grinning widely at the camera. Judging by how old they looked, Buffy would have guessed about fourth grade or so.

“You know, we really need to change up our poses,” Cyrus remarked. “I think we’ve posed the same exact way our entire lives.”

“I didn’t realize it was a photoshoot,” Buffy said.

“We never need an excuse to look good,” he shot back.

“Oh wow,” Andi interrupted their snarking. “Look at this one!”

It was another picture of the three of them, but they were all sitting in branches of a tree.

“I think that was taken in the park, right?” Buffy said, trying to search her memory.

“I can’t believe you guys got me up in a tree,” Cyrus said.

“Didn’t your dad help us take that one?” Andi asked Buffy. “I’m pretty sure he gave us all a boost up and then took the picture.”

“Oh yeah, now I remember!” Buffy said. “He wanted to send some to my mom, and you guys happened to be hanging out that day. So, she got some of all three of us.”

They continued to look through the pictures, laughing at some of the more awkward ones, and reminiscing on days gone by. They got so wrapped up in it that they didn’t realize that it was getting later out. They were only brought back to reality by Cece who rapped on the door of Andi Shack and asked them what they wanted for supper. After a quick discussion, they decided on pizza.

“Should we watch a movie after supper?” Andi suggested.

“Sure,” Buffy agreed. “In here?” While there wasn’t really space for a TV in Andi Shack, and it wasn’t safe for them to leave it out there, especially with the varying temperatures, the Macks had a portable projector with a DVD drive. If they hung up a white sheet across a wall, they could project movies onto it.

“Yeah, we could do that,” Andi agreed. “What do you guys want to watch?”

“ _Jurassic Park_!” Cyrus said immediately, causing both girls to groan.

“No dinosaurs,” Buffy said firmly.

“ _High School Musical_?” Andi suggested, but Cyrus made a face. That was a bit surprising, Buffy thought, since he normally loved that movie. But after thinking about the plot of the first movie, she could see how certain plot points may hit a little too close to home for him right now. She had seen him listening to Gabriella’s sad song at one point when he was on his sad Spotify binge.

“How about a _Harry Potter_ marathon?” she supplied. Not really any romance in the first couple of movies, and it was a fun, easy movie that they all loved.

The other two agreed on that one, and they cleaned up the remains of their snacks from earlier before heading in to wait for the pizza. While they were waiting, they chatted with Cece, and showed her some of the old photos they had found. She laughed along with them at some of the goofier looking ones, and even took a group one of the three of them. Despite Cyrus’ protest from earlier, they threw their arms around each other’s shoulders and pressed their heads together, in a pose they had done a million times before.

“You’ll have to send this to us later,” Buffy said as they examined it.

“Yeah, I just have to upload it to the computer, email it to myself, and then download it to my phone first,” Andi said. “Wow, I can’t believe we used to go through all that before.”

“Just hearing you say that made me appreciate my phone so much more!” Cyrus joked.

The pizza arrived then, and they tucked in. When they finished, they gathered up some snacks, a white sheet, the projector, movie, and a few extra blankets and pillows. Once inside Andi Shack, they set up the movie and made themselves comfortable. They used to do this all the time, Buffy reflected, but it had been awhile since they had. Either they did movie night at either hers or Cyrus’ house, or they did it at the apartment. Andi Shack had definitely gotten a little neglected ever since Andi moved out.

They were halfway through the second movie when Buffy noticed that her friends had both fallen asleep. She went to check the time but realized that she still didn’t have her phone. Leaning over to Cyrus, she gently tapped the screen of his smartwatch to see that it was past eleven. She paused the movie and turned off the projector.

She was surprised that Cece hadn’t come out to ask if they were going home. Since they hadn’t checked their phones all evening, she was pretty sure her parents and Cyrus’ had called to see what they were doing. It seemed that they were being allowed to have a sleepover. This in itself was surprising, since Cyrus had not been allowed to stay the night once they hit middle school. Their parents must have been making an exception this one time. Cece probably thought they were doing all this to cheer Andi up, which was at least partially true.

Buffy looked over at her friends again. The day, while a bit improvised, had overall been a success. She couldn’t remember the last time the three of them had hung out together with no issues or drama or problems. It was probably before Bex came back to town. After that, it seemed like it had been a whirlwind of family drama, boy troubles, and other issues. In the past year, she had gotten into a fight with both of her friends. At least with Cyrus it was a fight of sorts. She couldn’t remember a time before when she had ever gotten that angry with him. Part of her knew that she had felt so strongly about what had happened because she was stressed about moving, but she had still felt hurt by something he had done. Luckily, they had been able to make up (mostly because Cyrus refused to give up on her, and couldn’t get in an actual fight with anyone, even if he wanted to). But the experience had shaken her, and it had been a stark reminder that things were changing in their friend group.

And then there had been the whole business with Walker and Andi. While the two girls hadn’t exactly been fighting, it had gotten tense and uncomfortable between them in a way that had never happened before. Buffy hadn’t wanted to develop a crush on someone her friend used to like, but it wasn’t like she could control how she felt. And Walker had liked her back, which had been new and exciting. But it had driven a wedge between her and Andi, making her feel out of touch with her friend for the first time in their lives. Buffy was almost glad when things with Walker went south. It gave her an excuse to end the relationship, and things went back to normal between the girls. But it had also scared Buffy to know that a years-long friendship could change so quickly.

The three of them had been a small little unit for so long that when new people suddenly came along, it shook things up and made her feel off-balance. Whether it was Jonah or Amber or Walker or TJ, each new person brought something different and it changed around their existing relationships. And Buffy wasn’t opposed to making new friends or anything like that. But it made her realize that what she had with Andi and Cyrus was different now, and it would never really go back to the way things were. Maybe it was a good thing; she couldn’t tell yet. But it had scared her a bit to see how easily their friendship had been challenged.

But here they were. Despite everything that life had thrown at them, the three of them were still friends. They could still share their secrets and worries and problems with one another and know that they had people to rely on. Their day together with just the three of them had been really nice; Buffy hadn’t realized how much she had missed it until after it had happened. It comforted her, even though her friends still had great challenges ahead of them.

Andi was sharing the bed with her and was laying with her back to Buffy. As weird as it had been for Buffy to be back in Andi’s old bedroom and to be spending so much time in the old house, it must have been much weirder for her friend. It was from a time in her life before everything about her parents came to light. She knew Andi was extremely upset about her parents’ decision, and that it meant her family life had shifted and changed once again. At least she had Cece, Buffy reasoned. Despite Andi’s multiple complaints throughout their childhood, about how strict Cece was, the two had grown closer after Bex’s reveal, and whether Andi wanted to admit it or no, they actually had a lot in common.

And then Buffy looked over at Cyrus, who was curled up in an overstuffed beanbag chair on the floor next to the bed. A year ago, he would have been able to fit comfortably in the chair, but now his legs were splayed out. He had grown and changed so much in the past year or so. Seeing the old pictures of themselves had really put that into perspective. She was still worried about him, especially since he wasn’t talking about how he was feeling. There would be time in the days to come, and she hoped that he would be willing to do so. And while she didn’t want to push things, she also knew that Cyrus had a tendency to push his own problems away and try to focus on other people’s instead. Somehow, she would try and help him.

Both of her friends had thrown themselves in the events of the day pretty enthusiastically. She was glad that her plan had worked, and they had been able to be distracted, if only for a little while. In the long term, she knew that they couldn’t just avoid their problems and pretend they didn’t exist. But if it was for just one afternoon, it was okay. More than anything, she wanted them to know that she would be there for them. Even if she couldn’t fight their battles for them or stand up against whatever bad thing they were facing, she would do what she could.

And with that thought, she drifted off to sleep as well.

**Author's Note:**

> I had to do some math to figure out what years they would have been in grade school to determine what songs were popular then, and now I feel old.


End file.
